The present invention relates to a support structure of cooling air intake duct for intercooler of a vehicle with an engine equipped with a supercharger.
Conventionally, vehicle designing for improving a roomy passenger compartment has been developed, and therefore there is a tendency of a relatively short engine room in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle. This tendency influences not only an engine installment but also layouts of an air cleaner, a battery and other components to some extent. Particularly, in the vehicle with the supercharged engine, it is necessary to provide a space for disposing an intercooler.
Herein, the layout structure in which the intercooler of the vehicle is disposed in a flat position above the engine is known as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-335173. In this structure, it will be necessary to provide a cooling air intake duct for intercooler which includes an air inlet at its front end and an outlet connected to the intercooler at its rear end.
Meanwhile, in these days, it becomes necessary from viewpoints of the protection of pedestrians that the engine hood can be deformed properly in order to reduce an impact load which the head of pedestrians receives. Also, the engine hood tends to be designed in a low position from viewpoints of vehicle frontal design. Therefore, since the distance between the intercooler and the engine hood becomes shorter, the conventional support structures of cooling air intake duct for intercooler of the vehicle have a problem that particularly a side wall of the box-shaped duct above the intercooler would not be deformed properly. As a result, the engine hood would not be also deformed properly, and thereby the proper protection of the head of pedestrians would not be attained.